ESPN-HD looks worse?
- Thread starter ehren
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I have seen what you are describing at random times throughout the last month. The Tennessee vs South Carolina game on Halloween was particularly bad. Other times it has been great. The LSU game looked perfect over the weekend. ESPN comes off the 110 satellite for me. On the other hand, I absolutely cannot watch ESPNNEWS HD on Dish. It seems like every time a commercial comes on it just stutters and stutters in the commercial window. Even the sliding graphics aren't perfectly smooth on the left side of the screen. I do not believe this is a receiver issue since it doesn't happen on other channels except at times where I have seen others report the same issue, like NFL Network a few weeks ago. I have also tried resetting the receiver, but that does nothing. It looks like a Dish encoding issue since it wasn't present on cable and it isn't present when highlights of games are running. Others should be able to see it if I am onto something though. Then again, it doesn't always happen...
wow i'm not crazy? Get out!
I see that sliding graphic thing you mention as well! What the hell is going on!!!!!
That stutter thing bugs me, I have to change the channel and come back and hope the movement of the game is smooth.
I see that sliding graphic thing you mention as well! What the hell is going on!!!!!
That stutter thing bugs me, I have to change the channel and come back and hope the movement of the game is smooth.
Ok. I know at least some channels on 110W switched from 1440x1080 to 1920x1080 fairly recently without bitrates changing noticeably. You are getting ESPN from 110W, so maybe it's among the channels that underwent that switch. There were reports of Encore HD (also coming from 110W for you) having noticeable pixelation back in October and it had definitely been switched to 1920x1080 by then. At a higher resolution and without additional bits, filter upgrades, or encoder upgrades (which Scott has said are in-progress) I can imagine certain channels are now more likely than before to have visible problems.
Of course, it could be something else such as other channels in that mux consistently being allowed more bits than ESPN. That's what is (or at least was for several weeks) happening to HDNet Movies in a mux on 72W. I can't check any bitrates until tomorrow or later though so I'm just having fun speculating.
using different sats
I'm getting themoff different sats. ESPN is coming off tp 13 of 72.7 and the ESPN2 & ESPN NEWS are coming off 129 tps 30 & 28 respectively.
I'm getting themoff different sats. ESPN is coming off tp 13 of 72.7 and the ESPN2 & ESPN NEWS are coming off 129 tps 30 & 28 respectively.
Ok. I know at least some channels on 110W switched from 1440x1080 to 1920x1080 fairly recently without bitrates changing noticeably. You are getting ESPN from 110W, so maybe it's among the channels that underwent that switch. There were reports of Encore HD (also coming from 110W for you) having noticeable pixelation back in October and it had definitely been switched to 1920x1080 by then. At a higher resolution and without additional bits, filter upgrades, or encoder upgrades (which Scott has said are in-progress) I can imagine certain channels are now more likely than before to have visible problems.
Of course, it could be something else such as other channels in that mux consistently being allowed more bits than ESPN. That's what is (or at least was for several weeks) happening to HDNet Movies in a mux on 72W. I can't check any bitrates until tomorrow or later though so I'm just having fun speculating.
That is very interesting. I hope the encoder upgrades fix this issue, but the ESPN channels are 720p. Is Dish crazy enough to change them to 1080i?
I would guess not. I had forgotten that ESPN HD is 720p so I appreciate you pointing that out. I don't think I've ever checked what resolution Dish uses on it before, but I imagine they keep it at 720p like DIRECTV does. I just cheated and grabbed a quick peek at the bitrates in the mux with ESPN on 110W. 6 channels, two of which are consuming a big chunk of the bandwidth (~16 Mbps between HDNet and HDNet Movies) and the remaining four sharing the rest with ESPN averaging about 5-6 Mbps. Those HDNet bitrates are abnormally high compared to how I normally see them though. The bitrates on that mux are usually more balanced and it doesn't suffer from having 8-9 channels crammed into it like others do. Certainly possible that ESPN could be suffering when other channels are allowed to run at unusually high bitrates for extended periods of time as might be the case tonight.
Always more speculation to be had...
Wait, they changed the rez back up on some of the channels?
I had not heard they were doing that.
I simply don't understand the problems that Dish is having with these HD channels. I appears that the PQ varies day by day. I do agree, the LSU game looked great over the weekend but seems to have gone back to a crappy picture again this week. I am wondering if this problem is due to Dish or our receivers. What's interesting is how the PQ for OTA via 722 is effected as well. I am beginning to wonder if my problem might be heat related, however its in an open slot in my entertainment center. How hot would one of these receivers have to get before it starts messing with the PQ? Any recommendations?
